Regrettable?
by Aviarianna O Lorien
Summary: ON HIATUSBEING REWRITTEN Formorly Wishfull Mistakes But now it is being redone, revampred and revised. Should Kat regret her words? Will she once it's all said and done? And no, I do not mean THE words...heh.
1. Dismal Storytelling Skillz

Should I Regret This?

By Aviarianna O' Lorien

(Formally: Wishful Mistakes)

REQUEST FOR A BETA READER! IF YOU ARE INTERESTED PLEASE MESSAGE OR EMAIL ME, THANK YOU.

Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing that has to do with the Labyrinth, in movie form or book form save for a legally acquired DVD of the movie and a legally recovered copy of A. C. H. Smiths novel which you'll read a bit of later on. HOWEVER, Katarina I do own and Kyle and Tyler are in fact my real nephews…albeit in this story a few years younger than they are now. You steal them, and you will feel my very real wrath.

WARNING: Kat is a Mary Sue, and if you don't like the story, then stop reading and do me a favor, I KNOW she's a M.S so don't stupidly point out the obvious in a flame huh? Thanks.

AGES and DESCRIPTIONS:

Katarina, also known as Kat, is 18 years old human.

For the sake of the story, Kyle is about 7 years old and Tyler is about 1 and a half.

Kyle has short brown hair, a pale complexion, is about average height for a 7 year old, has brown eyes and is wearing Yu Gi Oh pajamas.

Tyler has very short blonde hair, blue eyes and is the normal height for his age. He is also wearing a solid blue sleeper.

Katarina is about 5"8 when barefoot and not very fond of heels. She is very pale and has dark brown, slightly wavy but usually unruly hair that is down to her shoulder blades and has freckles pretty much everywhere. Her eyes are rather interesting, while they are usually a deep brown, they tend to change color depending on mood and therefore can go anywhere from a bright green to a deep scarlet. She is curvy enough, but not perfect by any means and is a clumsy young woman.

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Katarina was not having a very good day, in fact one could easily say her day had been horrible. Dark clouds could almost be seen forming above her frowning form ready to unleash a downpour. She's been half an hour late for her first class of the day, and if that wasn't bad enough she'd then realized that she had absolutely no money for food between the two classes she had that day. To top it all off, her genetics homework had mysteriously disappeared along with her English essay and she swore the two were in collaboration against her! Even worse, while walking home from the bus stop she'd been caught in a literal downpour of freezing cold rain, soaking her through her sweatshirt, new shirt and favorite jeans through to the bone. Her only small triumph of the day? Her black boots were waterproof so at least her feet were dry.

But now she was finally home and all she had in mind was changing into something warm and dry, eating and working on some poetry or maybe the next chapter to one of her stories. She'd probably fall asleep reading the copy of Labyrinth she had printed out from a file on her computer. She'd seen the movie plenty of times, but the book always was a better version of any movie and yet, this is completely beside the point. After a wonderful snack of popcorn and Oreo cookies she settled down in front of her computer and opened a blank word document in the hopes that her usually overly creative mind would work it's magick and think up something good for this chapter.

Twenty minutes and no such luck, the document was still blank.

"You evil, evil brain of mine." She muttered to herself, glaring at the screen as if doing so would make the chapter appear out of nowhere. "You know what? Fine, that's just fine. I don't need to update it tonight…I'll just go and read more of Labyrinth and calm myself down." She slowly stood from the orange computer chair and went to grab the printout that, of course, wasn't there. "DAMN IT! WHY CAN'T ANYTHING GO RIGHT TODAY? IT'S NOT BLOODY FAIR!" her eyes widened suddenly and she giggled quietly to herself, knowing full well she'd just quoted Sarah from the movie and searched about for her novel. Just as she'd finally found it and settled down to continue reading it, the phone rang in it's ear piercing, heart attack inducing tones.

"Yay…" She muttered to herself, grabbing the phone from it's holder aggressively. "More good news….maybe mum and dad's plane crashed or Amanda's gone and gotten in a car accident." She put the phone to her ear and sighed inwardly. "Hello?" She said rather flatly.

"Hey Kat!" It was her overly cheerful half sister which meant one thing…

"Hey sis, what's up?" She replied with a bit more feeling, knowing and dreading the reason for this call.

"Oh nothing really. It's just that tonight is our anniversary, John and mine and our babysitter just canceled on us because of the storm…" the woman on the phone trailed off as Kat cursed inwardly. "And I was just wondering if maybe you could baby sit for us? Please?"

Inwardly, Kat groaned but outwardly she agreed to watch her nephews because her sister deserved a night away from the little hellions. "Sure, I'd be happy to watch the little…angels."

"Oh that's great! I'll swing by to pick you up in about fifteen minutes, bye!"

"Bye.." Kat hung up and grabbed her messenger bag to load it up with the necessary supplies, checking them off in her mind as she went along.

Pens; check! Pencils both colored and normal; check! Blank 200 page notebook, crayons and coloring books for the little hellions, water bottle, full pack of gum, Labyrinth novel printout and movie; all check. Candy for her salvation, chap-stick and eyeliner, Compaq mirror, again all check! Now all she had to do was change out of her warm, dry, comfy sweat pants and T-Shirt which she did, into a pair of flared blue jeans, a violet tank top under a black button up shirt and her sweat shirt, and of course, her waterproof boots.

"Oh!" She grabbed her pentagram pendant off her nightstand and clasped it around her neck, for luck among other things just as her sister honked from the driveway. Grabbing her aptly named survival pack she ran to the car and went on to meet her doom in the form of two little kids named Kyle and Tyler.

A few moments later, Kat was quickly pulled into her sister's house where she was soon to face more doom than even she could have guessed. And yet, one would have thought she'd figure in possible factors with all the bad luck she'd been having today. Still, she was doing this for her sister and she was getting paid for it so it would be worth it in the end right?

"Okay Kat, we should be back by 1 at the absolute latest, Tyler was just put down for the night and Kyle's got about an hour and a half before his bed time. Help yourself to anything you want or need and all that, numbers are on the fridge! Bye!" And with that, her sister and brother in law were gone, Kat had barely been able to say bye right back.

Now Katarina was many things, she was intelligent and liked to sing and write. She was of the Wicca religion and only recently knew of her…shall we say otherworldly? Heritage. She was strong and protective and new how to be calm and collected even when seething on the inside, but these little boys were always giving her a run for her money. Something told her she was going to do something stupid tonight, a feeling she got the moment the phone rang.

The poor girl really should have been expecting this.

About an hour and a half later…

"Okay you little demon of the under-world, time for bed. Now go!" Kat ordered the brown haired little boy with much satisfaction due to the look of disdain on his face. He opened his mouth, more than ready to argue with her and yell and scream but he never got past taking a breath. "NOW!" She yelled, relishing his yelp as he rushed into his and Tyler's room to get ready for bed.

"Aunty Kat! I'm done, tell me a story!" The little boy exclaimed as Kat walked in to tuck him into bed. A flash of lightning lit the room suddenly and a boom of thunder followed, effectively waking Tyler. The babies cries filled the air of the room and Kat winced at the volume, thinking to herself how she should have known something like this was going to happen. Kyle continued to demand a story while she attempted to calm down the younger boy. Finally, she got Tyler to be quiet and with a roll of her eyes sat down on the edge of Kyle's

"A story huh? Well you won't leave me alone unless I do so how about…"She thought for a moment and then set a subtle but malicious grin on her face. " The story of Sarah and the King of the Goblins, Jareth. You know what? You have no choice in the matter anyway so lay back, relax and try to fall asleep while I'm talking." She grinned even more, rocking Tyler so he'd do nothing more than sniffle and yawn.

"Now my dear nephew, it goes like this:

Nobody saw the owl, white in the moonlight, black against the stars,

nobody heard him as he glided over on silent wings of velvet. The owl

saw and heard everything.

He settled in a tree, his claws hooked on a branch, and he stared at

the girl in the glade below. The wind moaned, rocking the branch,

scudding low clouds across the evening sky. It lifted the hair of the

girl. The owl was watching her, with his round, dark eyes.

The girl moved slowly from the trees toward the middle of the glade,

where a pool glimmered. She was concentrating. Each deliberate step

took her nearer to her purpose. Her hands were open, and held

slightly in front of her. The wind sighed again in the trees. It blew

her cloak tightly against her slender figure, and rustled her hair

around her wide-eyed face. Her lips were parted.

"Give me the child," Sarah said, in a voice that was low, but firm

with the courage her quest needed. She halted, her hands still held

out. "Give me the child," she repeated. "Through dangers untold and

hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond

the Goblin City, to take back the child you have stolen." She bit her

lip and continued, "For my will is as strong as yours ... and my

kingdom as great ..."

She closed her eyes tightly. Thunder rumbled. The owl blinked, once.

"My will is as strong as yours." Sarah spoke with even more intensity

now. "And my kingdom as great ..." She frowned, and her shoulders

dropped.

"Oh, damn," she muttered.

Reaching under her cloak, she brought out a book. Its title was The

Labyrinth. Holding the book up before her, she read aloud from it. In

the fading light, it was not easy to make out the words. "You have no

power over me ..."

She got no further. Another clap of thunder, nearer this time, made

her jump. It also alarmed a big, shaggy sheepdog, who had not minded

sitting by the pool and being admonished by Sarah, but who now

decided that it was time to go home, and said so with several sharp

barks.

Sarah held her cloak around her. It did not give her much warmth,

being no more than an old curtain, cut down, and fastened at the neck

by a glass brooch. She ignored Merlin, the sheepdog, while

concentrating on learning the speech in the book. "You have no power

over me," she whispered. She closed her eyes again and repeated the

phrase several times." She stopped when Kyle began complaining about the story very loudly, causing Kat and Tyler both to become frustrated.

"This is a stupid story! There are no knights or princesses or monsters or anything! You suck at stories!" came from Kyle's mouth joined soon by Tyler's screams until Kat just could not take it anymore. Outside the room of the house the storm raged, almost as if it were being made furious right along with the babysitting girl within.

"THAT IS IT!" Kat screamed as she placed Tyler back into his crib none to gently. "You two know what? I WISH THE GOBLINS WOULD COME AND TAKE YOU AWAY RIGHT NOW!" She turned and exited the room then clasped a hand over her mouth in shock. "Ah shit…"

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	2. And With a Sigh of Disdain

Regrettable…?

A/N I would like to extend a thanks to reviewers, my beta reader, and anyone who has stood by me with this fic, and any of my others because being both a reader and a writer of them, I know how much it sucks when one you read doesn't get updated for months, years even. So I'm sorry…college life, family life, social life, other lives…yeah. Even though this IS an update, I'm telling you guys that it still may take me a while to get the next one out, on this fic and my others. Again, I am very sorry about all of this and I thank all of you!

Chapter Two: And With a Sigh of Disdain

There were no goblins running about the now empty room. There were no little things in the corner of her vision because they were not in the room to begin with. Everyone seemed to think that it would be just like movie but the movie over-exaggerated on many things. She didn't have to see the empty bed and crib to know the boys were gone. The room was silent with the exception of occasional thunder claps, and disembodied goblin giggles despite the fact that the little creatures were not physically there.

Another flash of lightning, followed by an immediate clap of thunder that shook the house to its foundation. She didn't even bother with the light switch, knowing it wouldn't work. Still, she stepped back into the stillness of the room with quiet caution. It wasn't every day (at least within the past decade or so) that something like this happened and she knew very well what she was going to have to do now. She wasn't looking forward to any of this but as a warm wind rushed around her she looked at the sliding glass door with sigh of disdain.

"You've got quite a mess to clean up haven't you?" Jareth's voice flowed through the room, though being who he was he was nowhere to be seen.

"I don't suppose asking for them back would work, would it?" She moved her eyes this way and that as much as the sockets would allow, peering into shadows and patches of light alike for a glimpse of platinum hair or black leather boot.

"Now Katarina, you know very well it won't." The voice was condescending with an edge of teasing.

"Can't blame a girl for trying."

"Actually my dear, I can but it would only amuse me and anger you and that would get us absolutely nowhere."

"Where are you Jareth?"

"Where I am needed of course." His voices had declined to a whisper of breath along the back of her neck, barely audible but horribly close.

She closed her eyes for a moment to steady her breath and steel her countenance from that close encounter. She had nothing to say to Jareth's statement, it was considerably honest for the man. Far be it from her to condemn him when he was actually telling the truth. It was when she once again felt that rush of warm wind surround her body that she opened her eyes again to find not a raging storm outside a glass door but a windswept hill with bits of brown and green vegetation.

And down the slope, across the sparsely furnished meadowland, was the Labyrinth.

"It looks…bigger." She muttered to herself, removing the long-sleeved button up and stuffing it into her "survival-pack". "Bloody 80 degree weather…"

"I seem to remember you liking the constant warmth." And there he was, in all his goblin glory. "Now, you remember the rules don't you?"

"I do, but far be it from me to make you give up the speech you love so very much." She quirked a brow at him and smiled sweetly.

"Do you find yourself so amusing Katarina?" he drawled, apparently UN-amused by her sarcastic statements.

"I do." Simple questions beget simple answers and before Jareth could take another breath to speak she continued. "May I begin now…highness?"

"Fine. You my dear have thirteen hours to solve my labyrinth or those two lovely boys shall be added to my ranks of goblins." And here he gave her a rather wicked smirk before fading away into the hot air.

Mentally Kat made a joke about Jareth and the hot air; physically she glared daggers at the maze before her.

"The things I get myself into…"

Chapter Fin

Yes I know it's short and for that I apologize. The way things have been going I'm honesty surprised I managed to get this bloody far…I'm hitting writers block left and right and up and down and upside down and sideways and slant-ways and always it seems….so please review, hopefully I can make the next chapter longer and have it out in under 6 months!

Again…thank you all for your continued support!

Aviarianna O' Lorien


	3. The Things She Gets Herself Into Part 1

Regrettable…?

A/N: All right…first of all I would like to thank ANYONE who has actually stuck with me for this work, for any of the others, this bloody long. I know I am taking forever, I am so sorry, really, I am. I know how frustrating it is, for both authors and readers and I am trying to get back into the groove of writing. It's proving a little bit on the hard side but that's probably because the last thing I wrote that I was happy with was, I believe, the second chapter of this story and we all know how short that was.  
So folks, without delay I give you another chapter! Amazing, I know.

Chapter 3: The Things She Gets Herself into (Part 1)

Katarina took one final glance behind her to make sure Jareth had really left. Seeing nothing but expanse of slightly dead looking flat lands leading towards the far off border of his land, she gave a small sigh of relief. She'd never get anything accomplished with him breathing down her neck like he had been a few minutes ago. She sighed again, a small, quiet little noise with barely a noticeable movement of her shoulders and looked back towards the sprawling maze in front of her.

The first step is always the hardest they say and right now that was a bit of an understatement. You see the trouble with the whole wish thing is that the labyrinth is a living-thing, an entity of sorts. She tends to grow year after year, but the time limit never does. No matter how much larger (and admiringly intimidating thought Kat) the maze got, the runner always had 13 hours and only 13 hours in which to solve it. With that in mind, Kat took her first step down the sandy hill. But of course Kat being Kat, she overshot where her foot was going to land and instead took a tumbling shortcut which landed her head first into one of the scraggly trees at the bottom.

"Owies…"Kat muttered to herself. She was slightly dazed but besides a bump on the head she was no worse for wear.

She was ready to glare at the little tree scathingly but saw it had stopped her from rolling into a very icky looking, unkempt lily pond. At least she hoped it was a lily pond, there was really no telling what kind of stuff actually grew and lived in that disgusting looking water. At this realization, she gave the tree a nice little pat on the trunk to say thanks and began walking carefully over to the outer walls, not wanting to do something else stupid, like spraining an ankle before even getting INTO the Labyrinth.

"Hello Laby…" she spoke softly, running a black nailed hand along the contours of the area where the door generally tended to be located (though it did change every so often)  


"Don't suppose you'd just let me in this time would you love?"

The doors stayed tightly sealed shut in answer, and to her right a series of symbolic pressured tiles formed in the wall. Kat knew this game very well and she smiled a secret smile to herself that even the watching Goblin King couldn't quite understand. She did however take a step back to study the 13 pictorial tiles as one big picture. As jumbled as they were she knew exactly what they represented and began to push them down in the correct order starting near the middle of the line and branching outward. Once the final symbol was back in place Kat took a large step back.

Each 5x5 inch tile slid from its place to form a line from top to bottom on the outer wall where once they had formed a horizontal one. The thirteen tiles, each one representing in picture form one of the thirteen months that make up an Underground year, formed a seam by connecting themselves with several, short thin lines between every two. Once the seam was complete, the stone gave a great groan and the wall opened inward to let her through.

"Thanks love. I promise I'll get Jareth to clean you up a bit." She smiled again at the huge maze and walked through. Waving to the Seeing Lichen, she didn't as much as flinch as the doors closed solidly behind her.

"Well then…which way, which way…" Looking right and left it did seem as though the two sides went on for forever and a day. The truth is that's all an illusion because the turns are enchanted to look as though they don't exist, but that makes it no less intimidating.

"Umm…" Her only other option was to go straight and looking at the supposed wall in front of her that seemed like an impossible choice. Kat knew better than anyone that things are pretty much NEVER what they seem to be but that didn't stop the wall from looking infallibly solid. She glared at the lichen that was now sniggering quietly at her, it wasn't fazed and simply sniggered louder, having seen the indecision from runners before a million times.

"Oh shut up…" she grumbled, aiming to walk through the wall (hopefully) with dignity and poise.

Closing her eyes may have been a mistake at that point.

Chapter Fin  
possibly a little bit longer than the other chapter, I think. I will take this time to plug an awesome band called Ludo, who I have been listening to a lot lately. Yes they are named after THAT Ludo and I even got to meet them last night, so I'm in a good mood. You can probably partly thank our cable and internet being down for this chapter, you can thank the 

aforementioned band because listening to them has caused some inspiration.  
And thank my beta reader! She catches stuff I never would have noticed!

Till next we meet, dearlings.  
Aviarianna O' Lorien


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